The Hoenn Zombie Apocalypse
by Mr. Alien123
Summary: It's the Pokemon world in the zombie apocalypse. Ruby has just moved to Littleroot to start his journey when he discovers something odd about Hoenn. With the help of his purple Mudkip and friends, can he save the Hoenn region? I don't own Pokemon. I also don't own zombies... I think... Also, if I could have a third genre, it would probably be Comedy as well.
1. Hoenn is a Weird Place

The roar of the truck blocked me from thinking anything at all. I was going to Hoenn, otherwise known as where "Land Meets the Water."

I was going to get my first Pokemon as well. I wondered faintly about what it could be. Suddenly, the truck came to a sudden halt. I lurched forward and barreled out of the truck. I stared in wonder and horror back at the truck. How did it cross the ocean? I shook my head and gazed up at my new home.

It was your average Joe house, 2 stories, made out of wood and concrete. The paint was a bit shabby fitting in with the grass growing up to the windows. Littleroot Town seemed like a small, quiet, and humble town.

"Ruby? We're going to be finished moving in a sec. Why don't you go next door and meet our neighbor?" Mom suggested.

I shrugged. My new neighbor was a girl named Sapphire. Their house was about 30 yards from my house, so I jogged over there to greet myself. On the way there, I felt something strange. Maybe it was the humidity of the region or the fact that I was going on a Pokemon Journey, but I felt strange. Sick, almost.

I passed it off as something else and knocked the front door of the house that looked exactly the same as my own. I heard nothing and I pulled the doorknob mindlessly.

It swung right open. I peered inside. The kitchen light was flickering on and off, leaving me in half darkness. Now I'm not afraid of the dark, but the fact that it was night and that feeling I had before really stressed me out. I looked around some more.

The chairs from the dining table were thrown across the room. Posters were ripped up and- oh god. Blood was on the floor, a few feet away. I ran upstairs and was greeted by complete silence and darkness. Then I heard a shrill cry from the floor.

"Torchic! Ember!" A huge cloud of fire and smoke flew right at me. It blocked my vision and I fell over. Grunting with confusion, I tried getting up. What was attacking me? I threw a random fist in the air and it connected with flesh, and I heard someone cry out in pain.

"Who's there?" I yelled. Then there was silence.

"You… you can talk? You're not one of them…" I heard a girl say. She lifted a lantern up and I could see her face. It was caked with dirt and sweat and her wild sapphire eyes seemed to pierce my soul.

"What did you do that for?" I said, wincing at my burn marks on my arm.

"Sorry. I thought you were one of them." She said. She sighed heavily and sat down. There it was again.

"One of who? I came here and saw there was blood. What's going on?" I asked, thinking the girl was delusional.

She squinted at me for what seemed like an hour and realized something.

"You're my neighbor Ruby, right? I'm Sapphire, and something weird's been going on for the past hour. There are cannibals running around the town." Sapphire explained.

"… OK… Is this a prank or something to welcome newcomers? I asked, looking around for possible cameras. When I heard no response, I got up and went out the front door. Sapphire looked like she was about to say something, but I didn't give her a chance.

It seemed pretty quiet here. The full moon illuminated everything with an eerie white. I'm telling Mom this place is full of crazies and I should go on my journey now. Thinking nothing of cannibals, I walked home, yawning and wondering what's for dinner. Then I heard a scream. Mom.

I sprinted towards the door and tried to bust it open. Trying the knob, it was locked. I saw a bag nearby and wondered if it could have any tool to open the door. I dived towards it and began searching through its contents.

Just two Pokeballs. This could actually help. I grabbed the one on the right and sent out the Pokemon, hoping it could bust open doors and stuff. It was a fish thingy and sparkled when it came out. It was purple.

"Uh… Mud fish thing! Bust open the door with a Tackle attack!" I commanded.

The Pokemon looked at me in pity and sat down, resting.

"Come on! Please?" I yelled. I heard Mom scream again. "FINE!" I yelled.

I climbed up to the second story window with a rock and busted it open. Mom was screaming, "HELP! STOP!" from the hallway. I opened the door into the hallway and she seemed to be pushing away a blood covered guy who was baring his teeth.

I threw the rock at his head and he fell backwards.

"Ruby! Are you OK? Something is going on in this town! Get out of here as fast as you can!" She threw me a bag and some shoes and pushed me out the front door. It all happened so fast that I didn't know what to do or if I could do anything and I was running half heartedly towards the bag I found with the Pokemon. Then I realized something, the mud fish was trying to fend off a cannibal human, but the human was much stronger.

I had two options, either run away and be safe or put myself in danger and rescue the Pokemon. Reluctantly, I took the bag off my shoulder, ran towards the cannibal, and smacked it in the face with the bag. It recoiled and fell over, but was still alive. The Pokemon looked stunned, but jumped on my shoulder and we both ran off towards the woods.

Seems like Hoenn is a weird place.


	2. Survivin' and Stuff

We both ran – no. SPRINTED to the Route above Littleroot. As soon as we hit the tall grass, I dove to the ground and started breathing like a fish. The Pokemon followed suit.

"Something is wrong. We need to get to safety," I tell the fish Pokemon, although it was already common knowledge at this point.

I was still carrying the bag I found the Pokemon in. Maybe it had some kind of info on what went wrong. I opened it up and saw that the other Pokeball must've dropped out in my frenzy to get out. The only thing left was a device and a note. I read it aloud to both of us.

**WELCOME, NEW PKMN TRAINER!**

**THIS IS A HIGH TECH ENCYCLOPEDIA THAT REGISTERS ANY POKEMON YOU SEE OR CATCH.**

**YOU HAVE A CHOICE BETWEEN THE WOOD GECKO POKEMON, TREECKO; THE FIRE CHICKEN POKEMON, TORCHIC, OR THE MUD FISH POKEMON, MUDKIP.**

**I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK ON YOUR JOURNEY!**

**-Professor Birch**

I sighed. The note was written before all this happened. Apparently, the Pokemon I had was called Mudkip. I'm on the route above Littleroot with no clue what to do. I winced as I realized how brightly Mudkip was shining. He was just sitting there, waiting for me to do something.

I guess the best course of action would be to get to the next town, inform them of what happened, and get some police over there A.S.A.P.

Saphhire said it started just hours before I arrived, so chances are the next town isn't affected.

"C'mon, Mudkip," I command. He obediently follows.

Dad won't be happy to find out about this. He's a Gym Leader at Petalburg City, and has a sort of anger problem if anything goes wrong.

Let's see, if I remember from the Hoenn Guide Book, the next town is Oldale Town. I start walking and realize I should probably put Mudkip back in his Pokeball. I throw it at him.

"Mudkip, return," I say, but surprisingly, he whacks it away with his fin. Mudkip looks pretty mad, so I guess he doesn't like Pokeballs that much. "OK, you can stay out if you can keep a look out."

We start jogging to the town while the only lights shining are the few streetlamps and the dim, eerie glow of the moon.

This route is mostly like a mini-forest, with ledges, tall grass, palm trees, and no complete path. After 30 minutes of nearly losing my head falling off of cliffs, I see the opening leading to the next town. It seems like a pretty modest town, with humble homes scattered about, a Pokemon Center in the heart of it, and a few markets here and there.

I see Police Officer Jenny (seriously, why do they ALL look the same even in different regions?) talking with Nurse Joy in front of the house near where I am. It seems pretty serious, so I watch from a distance and try to eavesdrop behind some bushes. I can only pick out a bit of murmurs here and there.

"House…yes…attack…..Pokemon…..Station….Injured…"

I cautiously, with Mudkip following close behind, walked to the two people. They didn't notice until I was literally a foot away.

"E-excuse me?" I stammer, still pretty scarred over what happened in Littleroot.

"Yes?" Officer Jenny tries to put on her usually determined and polite voice, but to no avail. It was clear they were both worried about something.

"I arrived today with my mom at Littleroot, and there's something strange going on. Apparently there are these cannibal zombies who're attacking everyone," I say, mentally facepalming myself over how stupid that sounded. They were surely going to laugh at me now.

But they stood there with a mix of worry, fear, and confusion.

"We're already aware of that. There're already been 2 attacks in this town. I'm doing the best I can to keep this place safe. For now, our Pokemon Center is our refugee center. You shouldn't be out here," Officer Jenny stated firmly.

Next thing you know, Mudkip and I were piled into the back of Officer Jenny's motorcycle – car thing with Nurse Joy and we were headed to the PKMN Center.

The front doors opened automatically when we walked in and Officer Jenny quickly tried to close it up.

The Center was pretty big. Dim lights from the ceiling let you see around the sea colored walls and floor. Couches and sofas littered the lobby, but most kids were standing up, having Pokemon Battles or just too worried to sit down.

"Where're all the adults?" I ask, noting everyone was a kid.

"The adults in Littleroot are the ones who turned into _zombies_ first. The adults here were recruited to try and stop them," Nurse Joy said.

I gasped. "You're going to kill them?" I think of Mom.

Nurse Joy lets out a laugh. "We wouldn't do that. We're mainly barring the whole town off with a gate and posting a few guards here and there. No more questions, please. It's time for bed."

Nurse Joy starts going on a speech about why sleep is important while Officer Jenny salutes everyone and drives off, but something's bugging me. Only the adults turned immediately, and…. Sapphire was still there!

I didn't really care at first, but I can't just let someone die, right? And this'll be the perfect opportunity to see if Mom and the Prof are OK, right?

Mudkip barely wrapped himself in a fallen blanket before I knelt down and explained the plan. He seemed surprised, but laid down again and started snoring.

Looks like I'll do this by myself, then.

I waited till everyone was asleep, found the back door (I had to tiptoe through 50+ rooms, a remarkable feat), and ran to the PokeMart.

There was no one here, but the door was open for whatever reason. I picked out a few Pokeballs and Potions and threw some money on the counter.

I started walking when I realized something, on the edge of the route, something was running towards me in panic.

It was a Torchic. Sapphire's.


	3. Info and Stuff

The Torchic tripped as it made its way over to me.

"Torchic! What happened to Sapphire? And the townspeople?" I ask.

Torchic just jumps around panicked and runs off to the route below Oldale and I try to keep up. It's surprisingly calm while my foot clomp on the ground as I follow the fire chicken, which is sprinting fast.

He jumps over the ledge and I do as well, careful not to make too much noise. Then I hear a groaning sound.

"Torchic, wait. _Shh." _I whisper, and Torchic stops in his tracks.

There's a line of trees blocking us from whatever made that sound, and I peek in between two trees. There's- OH ARCEUS, there's a zombie- human eating a Zigzagoon.

I turn away and am about to throw up, but I realize that would make too much noise.

"C'mon, Torchic," I say grimly.

We make the distance to Littleroot in silence, and upon arriving in the clearing, it was like the Distortion World on Earth.

Zombies were now running everywhere- I even saw a zombie Pokemon, looked like a Psyduck. Screams were echoing in the town, and I heard footsteps behind me. I dove into the bushes and a tree to my right and Torchic barely made it before we saw who it was.

"Alright, people. Barricade em up." An officer was talking over the noise, and before I knew it, the barricade was going around the perimeter of the town. People were stretching a fence with barbed wire on top. There would be no going in or out.

But they haven't barred my side yet. It was now or never. I jumped into the town with Torchic by my side, and ran to Sapphire's house since it was the nearest.

"Watch this, Torchic," I say, sounding cool. I ran full speed into the door and fell back from the recoil. I grunted, and tried opening the door. It was unlocked. Figures.

As soon as I entered, I saw no one, not even her mom. Running upstairs, I saw nothing but a desk, a computer, a bed- there was a note on the bed.

Mom, I headed for the lab because it's safer, and I hope you'll read this when you come home.

-Sapphire

Great, she was in the lab. From outside, you might be horrified at the scene of a kid breaking a window at the second floor and jumping out, but whatever. I carried Torchic now since he wasn't as fast as Mudkip.

The lab was in sight, and in a blur, I sprinted towards it and started banging on the doors with both fists, dropping Torchic.

"HEY, LEMME IN! THERE'S ZOMBIES EVERYWH-" But the doors opened and a bunch of hands pulled my inside.

I looked around at the faces as the Prof's assistant shut the doors and locked 'em.

There was Professor Birch, Sapphire, 3 assistants, and that girl I saw near the route.

"Where's Mom?" I ask.

"Ruby, she left with a lot of the others on a ship from Littleroot to a place called the Battle Frontier, a supposed refugee center. We wondered where you went, and we urged your mother to go on the ship. They left like, 10 minutes ago," Professor Birch explained.

"Wait- why didn't all of you go?" I ask, thoroughly confused.

Professor Birch cleared his throat. "Well, uh, you see…. We need you, Sapphire, and a kid in Petalburg to do a little errand for us. I assume when you came to this region, you heard about Teams Magma and Aqua?"

"Yes, I did hear some rumors," I remember watching my TV at Ecruteak City before we left.

"After some deduction, we concluded they were the ones who caused all this, or at the least, connected to all this. We need you kids to go find out what's up and report back. We can't do it ourselves since we're not as fast or hard to spot in the wild. First, go to Rustboro City, where the latest sightings of Team Aqua were. I'm sorry to put this much pressure on you, you should be going on an actual Pokemon journey, but this is crucial to the Hoenn region and I'm not even sure the other regions are safe anymore. You took my bag, I presume?" Professor Birch asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Uhh… yeah. I took the Mudkip already," I say.

"You can keep him, then. Sapphire has Torchic, and you take the last Pokemon to the kid in Petalburg- his name is Wally. Go now, time's a wasting!" The Prof says.

Sapphire and I climb through an emergency exit through the ceiling and we have a clear view over all the madness.

"That side seems the best, there's hardly any zombies," Sapphire says. "Wait… there's no way out! There's barbed fences everywhere!"

"Duh! I barely got inside myself," I exclaim.

"Wait, I have an idea. Go Torchic!" Sapphire throws the Pokeball high up in the air, and Torchic bursts out. "Use Ember!"

Torchic burns a hole in the metal fence, and we got outside. But there was a person watching the whole time.

"HEY! NO ONE'S SUPPOSED TO GET IN OR OUT, HOW DO I KNOW YA'LL AIN'T INFECTED?" Yells a burly man holding a gun, his finger on the trigger.

"Uhhh, we were sent by the Professor-" I start.

"I DON'T CARE. IMMA HAVE TO SHOOT YA NOW!" He keeps on screaming while a veins bulge in his neck and his face goes all red. It' all I can do not to burst out laughing.

But then a spray of water came from the bushes! The guard falls over, breathing hard. Mudkip cries out and motions for us to follow.

"That's your Mudkip? Why is all shiny and purple instead of blue?!" Sapphire seems surprised.

"I dunno! We'll talk when we get away.

The guard screams after us, yelling profanities. The 4 of us sprint towards Oldale, once attempting to climb the ledge. Sapphire jumped the 10 foot ledge with ease, but I couldn't even jump 4 feet.

"Pfft, Johto natives," Sapphire mutters as I finally got over by climbing a tree and breathing hard.

"By the way, what happened to your mom?" I ask, remembering the note.

"I don't know yet. My guess is she got on the ship to the Battle Frontier. Let's hurry up and find Wally," Sapphire says.

We arrive at the next town and sneak around the perimeter of trees to get to the next route. Everything was going alright, until I tripped over someone.

"HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE STEPPIN, KID!"

"_Shhhh, SHUT UP!" _I whisper.

"I'm studying the footprints of a rare Pokemon. Don't interrupt," he snaps.

"Whoa, it looks like a footprint I've never seen before," I say. There was a large oval on front, and then a small circle below it. Mysterious.

"You realize that's a human footprint, right?" Sapphire says, looking at us both. Mudkip sniffs the footprint and then the guy's own shoe. He nods.

"Wha- NO! It is a rare Pokemon!" He cries and runs back to town.

Huh.

We continue on to the next route.

"Things are going smoothly, if we continue like this, we'll reach Petalburg in 10 years," Sapphire says.

"10 years?! It's that far away?" I ask.

"No, you idiot! Can't you recognize sarcasm when you hear it?"

We retort at each other until we hear a kid coming our way, then we quiet down.

"Are you friendly, or an enemy?" He asks, he wears a farmer's hat, with a tank top and shorts. A typical Bug Catcher.

"Friendly," I say.

"The only way to know for sure is a Pokemon Battle!" He says.

A Pokemon… Battle?


	4. Battlin' and Stuff

I've seen lots of battles before at Dad's gym, so I kind of get the gist.

"Mudkip, I choose you!" I command. Mudkip jumos into battle, shining dangerously bright.

"Go, Wurmple!" The Bug Catcher orders.

"Mudkip, Water Gun!"

Mudkip lets out a spray of concentrated water, hitting Wurmple hard. But it hasn't fainted yet.

"Wurmple, String Shot!"

Wurmple lets out a silky thread from its mouth and it loops itself around Mudkip's feet, tripping him. Before I can even react, he yells out another command.

"Use Tackle, Wurmple!"

Wurmple launches itself towards Mudkip, making him a little weaker, but I order Mudkip again.

"Mudkip, Tackle!" I yell.

Mudkip amazes all of us as it hops all the way from its starting point to Wurmple, still binded by the String Shot. He knocks Wurmple away and the Bug Catcher kneels down.

"You did great, Wurmple, return," he says, calling Wurmple back to its Pokeball.

"Great, now can we move on? I'm still surprised all that commotion didn't bring a gauntlet of zombies our way," Sapphire says, peering around at the shrub around us.

"It's kind of a rule we have now. We can't know for sure if you're friendly or not without having a battle. A battle shows us who you really are and how you treat your Pokemon," The Bug Catcher says.

"That makes sense. But we gotta get going. C'mon Mudkip," I say. He hops on my shoulder and Sapphire follows behind, carrying Torchic.

The Bug Catcher bids us farewell and we go on. This route is abundant with trees and one or two streetlights for convenience.

It's like a maze with another ledge, maybe 20 feet, that Sapphire got past using her hands once and launching herself up with her feet, landing on the hill above, all while balancing Torchic on her head.

"I'll go the long way around," I call up, staring at awe at what I witnessed.

"Don't take too long! Torchic and I are havin' dinner!" Sapphire says, unfolding a sandwhich wrapper.

I walk past the hill and through the tall grass, keeping a lookout for any zombies nearby. Nothing happens until I'm halfway.

A Poochyena comes bounding outta the grass, snarling at me. Mudkip instinctively jumps off my shoulder, facing Poochyena.

Dexter starts up out of nowhere, scaring me half to death.

**POOCHYENA, THE BITE POKEMON.**

**It savagely threatens foes with bared fangs. It chases after fleeing targets tenaciously. It turns tail and runs, however, if the foe strikes back. **

Poochyena moves first, lunging at Mudkip, but he dodges and sprays a jet of water on Poochyena. Poochyena, still snarling, is shivering like someone on the peak of Mt. Silver.

Right before we left, Birch gave us bags full of food, first aid, and Pokeballs. The more the merrier, I guess.

I dig a Pokeball out and throw it at the Poochyena, startling it a bit. But the Pokeball falls to the moist grass, shaking vigorously. I dings with a hallow _BING_ and before I know it, I have another Pokemon on my team!

I call out Poochyena, and he looks dazed at me as the three of us cover the rest of the distance to Sapphire.

"What took you so long?" Sapphire says, in between mouthfuls of bread.

"We just got another team member, say hi to Sirius!" I say, motioning to the Poochyena.

"…Sirius?"

"Yep. I named 'im that."

We all sat down near some rocks overlooking the ledge, eating as little food as possible for dinner. I wouldn't exactly call it "dinner" since it was around 4:00 in the morning. Torchic pecked the food vigorously, Mudkip chomped on the food as fast as possible, and Sirius munched thankfully on his food. I healed Mudkip and Sirius with potions, since they were hurt pretty bad.

I wonder if Sirius likes Pokeballs, because Mudkip obviously hates em.

"Poochyena, return!" I say, and he obediently returns. I attach the Pokeball to my belt and we all start walking towards Petalburg,

"How'd all this even start? Team Magma and Team Aqua's goals aren't really to infect this entire island. Also, I'm wonderin if Petalburg is safe or not," Sapphire says, almost to herself.

"We'll find out soon enough, I guess," I say. We can see the entrance to the town about a hundred feet away.

But we don't even get there before we bump into someone. We take a few steps backward as the figure moans. Then his head is met with a fist from Sapphire.

"Owwww! My head!" The figure complains, caressing his head.

"Oh my Arceus! I'm sorry, I thought you were one of them!" Sapphire defends.

The person pulls his head out into the moonlight and we see he has green hair.

Huh. Weird.

"Hey, bud! What're you doing out here?" I say.

"_Urrgh_. I was out here trying to find a Pokemon to train, and then I got knocked out with a Ralt's Confusion attack. Then I woke up to you guys tryin to kill me!" The guy says.

"Hey, you're from Petalburg, right? Do you know anyone named Wally?" Sapphire asks, and it was pretty clear she didn't hear a word he just said.

The guy stares at her. "That'd be me. You're Ruby and Sapphire, aren't you? Birch told me about you. Where's my Pokemon?"

I rummage in the bag and throw the last remaining Pokeball to Wally and it hits him square in the head.

"Why is it always me?" He groans. "Go, Pokemon!"

A green Pokemon breaks free of the ball and Dexter tries to scare me to death again.

**TREECKO, THE WOOD GECKO POKEMON**

**TREECKO has small hooks on the bottom of its feet that enable it to scale vertical walls. This POKEMON attacks by slamming foes with its thick tail.**

"It's cool, I guess…" Wally comments.

"Great, now what?" I say.

"Remember? Dad- Birch said there was the latest sightings of them at Rustboro city. We go there now and try to figure out what they're up to," Sapphire reminds me.

Great. More walking.

"Petalburg is safe for now. You two can come to the Pokemon Center and rest there for a couple hours," Wally offers.

"That's probably be best," I say, noticing how tired I am from walking and running.

No streaks of dawn were present, but there were going to come any second as we all neared the Pokemon Center.

The town looked pretty busy as several people and trainers rushed by, frantic about what happened at the neighboring towns. The Pokemon Center looks exactly the same as it does in the other Centers in Hoenn.

Sapphire went to the girl's dormitory as the rest of us stumbled up to the boy's. Surprisingly, there weren't that many people there.

There was one really worried looking trainer pacing back and forth, a trainer snoring away with his Aipom playing a prank on yet another snoring trainer.

The worried trainer looked at us with alarm, baggy eyes.

"Hey, have you by any chance meet a girl named Stephanie? She's my sister, and was staying at Littleroot for a while, and I'm worried she didn't make it out." The boy asked, distraught.

"Nope," Wally comments, before he passes out on a bottom bunk.

"Actually, I might've. Brown eyes, black hair, around 10 years old?" I ask, remembering the girl in Birch's lab.

"YES, THAT'S HER!" He yells, shaking me vigorously on my shoulders. "WHAT HAPPENED? IS SHE OK? WHERE IS SHEEEEEEEE?" He goes into, like, a panic attack mode.

"Dude, calm down!" I command. "She's fine. She's with Birch and their assistants, in a safe lab where no zombies can get in-" I start, but then he flings open a window and falls down, hopefully not dead.

Huh.

Well I've had enough for today. I climb up on the top bunk above Wally since it's the only one left. There's a side bed attached to the side for your Pokemon to sleep, so I called out Sirius and the two of them started snoozing away.

I couldn't sleep well, not after what happened tonight. Was it only just 8 hours ago that I headed over to Sapphire's place for the first time and all this madness started?

And then… Dad lived in this town, so I could be expecting to get yelled at a lot tomorrow.

But I close my eyes for what felt like a second and I lurched forward. Mudkip was still snoring (seems like he loves to sleep) but Sirius was staring out a window. When he saw me awake, he gave a little bark and jumped off the bed, motioning for me to follow.

"Mudkip, c'mon, bud," I say, shaking him awake.

All three of us stood at the door leading to the main lobby, and I noticed that the boy's room had been turned upside down. The covers were flown everywhere, things left behind- it seemed like people left in a hurry.

I walked to the quiet lobby and over to the breakfast machine.

**HELLO. I AM BREAKFAST MACHINE. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE FOR BREAKFAST- THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY?**

"Eggs'll do just fine," I mumble, still half asleep.

The machine makes all sorts of noises, bounces about, and then a pleasant _DING_ is heard as a fresh, hot bowl of eggs with bread on the side appears out of a compartment area. The other side of the machine starts pouring orange juice and Pokemon food for Mudkip and Sirius. I sit down on a table, wolf it all up in 5 minutes, and wait, eyes still drooped, for my two Pokemon to finish.

Mudkip, like me, wolfs it down fast, and Sirius tries to eat faster, even though I comment he should take his time.

Then I hear a grab on my arm and I jerk around, half expecting a zombie.

"WHAT'RE YOU DOIN EATING BREAKFAST? THE WHOLE TOWN IS IN CHAOS!" Sapphire drags me over to a window, opens a blind, and I see for myself.

There's blood everywhere, zombies running after crying adults, zombie Pokemon beating each other up, and humans VS humans, fighting for supplies.

"OH MY ARCEUS! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" I yell.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS? THE ALARM WAS AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE!"

We fight again for a minute until we hear some noises in the ventilation system.

It sounded like some grunting, and then the grate popped off.

It was Wally.

"Guys! C'mon! This is the only way out!" Wally coughs.

Sapphire, as usual jumps straight up and swiftly crawls through it with ease.

Sirius and Mudkip get picked up by Wally and pulled into the system.

I need to stack containers of papers up to reach there, and by that time, the front doors have opened! Or, crashed, more like it.

Zombies ran everywhere, knocking over tables and heading towards me.

"RUBY! GET IN HERE!" Sapphire orders, and I jump up, crashing into the system, but still pretty safe.

That is, until a zombie grabs my leg. I try to kick it off with my foot, but the other zombies are coming towards me too.

Mudkip tries to Water Gun 'em and Wally tries pulling, but he's much too weak.

Sapphire grasps my arm, gives a big tug, and we all tumble down the system for around a minute before we crash into another grate leading outside.

We all sit, breathing heavy on the fresh cut grass, the sun shining bright ahead of us.

"Which way, Ruby?" Wally asks.

"I dunno!" I comment, putting Sirius back in his Pokeball. Sapphire looks at the sky.

"The sun rises in the east, and the route is west, so we have to go opposite the sun," Sapphire thinks out loud.

Wally, Mudkip, and I try to catch up to her as fast as possible, trying to stay on the perimeter to avoid the mayhem.

We've reached the next route and everything is going good so far until we bump into someone (again) and fall down.

But this guy was an adult. He had a bandana like Sapphire's, but his was blue and hers was red. He wore a black and white striped shirt with blue jeans, covered in strange markings.

"What're you kids doing here?" He said, a smirk forming across his face.

"Uhh… passing through?" I say, unsure what was going on.

His smile faded. "Carvanha, go!" He commanded.

"Wait, WHAT?!" Sapphire said.

This guy didn't seem too friendly, and he was giving off the vibe he wanted to hurt us, so I did what I would normally do.

"Sirius, I choose you!"


	5. Character Bios

**CHARACTER BIOS- I'LL BE UPDATING THIS AS THE STORY GOES ON**

**MAIN CHARACTERS:**

**Ruby:**

Gender: Male

Age: 14

Birthplace: Ectruteak City, Johto

Raised: Ectruteak City, Johto and Hoenn in general

DOB: February 15, 2000

Eye Color: Ruby Red

Hair Color: Black

**Sapphire:**

Gender: Female

Age: 14

Birthplace: Mossdeep City, Hoenn

Raised: Littleroot Town, Hoenn

DOB: March 28, 2000

Eye Color: Sapphire Blue

Hair Color: Brown

**Wally: **

Gender: Male

Age: 14

Birthplace: Pewter City, Kanto

Raised: Pewter City and Petalburg City, Hoenn

DOB: October 30, 1999

Eye Color: Lime Green

Hair Color: Green

**Mudkip:**

**Lv: 18**

Gender: Male

Birthplace: Hatched from an Egg underwater near the Abandoned Ship

Raised: In the oceans of Hoenn

DOB: October 31, 2008

Characteristics: Loves to Battle and Sleep, somewhat of a clown, somewhat vain, Brave Natured, Purple (shiny).

Moves: Water, Growl, Mud Slap, Water Gun

**PARTY POKEMON:**

**Torchic:**

**Lv: 13**

Gender: Male

Birthplace: Mt. Chimney

Raised: Littleroot Town

DOB: September 23, 2008

Characteristics: Loves to Eat and can take many hits, Quirky natured.

Moves: Scratch, Growl, Focus Energy, Ember

**Treecko:**

**Lv: 7**

Gender: Female

Birthplace: Petalburg Woods

Raised: Petalburg Woods

DOB: January 2, 2009

Characteristics: Hates to lose, Loves naps, Calm natured.

Moves: Pound, Leer, Absorb

**Poochyena (Sirius):**

**Lv: 5**

Gender: Male

Birthplace: Route 102

Raised: Route 102

DOB: May 4, 2010

Characteristics: Highly curious, likes to run, Modest natured.

Moves: Tackle, Howl, Sand Attack


	6. Killin' and Stuff

Sirius bursts out of the Pokeball, snarling at Carvanha.

Dexter decides to beep up right there.

**CARVANHA, THE SAVAGE POKEMON**

**CARVANHA'S strongly developed jaws and its sharply pointed fangs pack the destructive power to rip out boat hulls. Many boats have been attacked and sunk by this POKEMON.**

"Sirius, Tackle!" I yell, and Sirius lunges at Carvanha, and they both tumble to the ground.

"Carvanha. Bite."

Carvahna bares its teeth and sinks them right into Sirius. Sirius lets out a yelp and falls to the ground.

"Sirius, return!" I say, returning my Poochyena to his Pokeball.

"It ain't over yet!" Sapphire yells. "Go, Torchic!"

Torchic lets out a war cry as it emerges from the Pokeball.

"Torchic, Ember!"

Torchic lets out a bunch of fire spotted flames and they land directly on Carvanha.

"Carvanha, Leer!"

Carvanha makes a pretty intimidating face as it stares Torchic down. Torchic panics, but holds his ground.

"Torchic, let's finish this off with a Scratch attack!"

Torchic runs at Carvanha and scratches it with his beak. Carvanha falls over.

"You kids got lucky. Don't interfere with us again, or you'll be sorry," the random pirate costume wearing guy said. Then he sprinted off in the shrubs.

"That was weird. Who was that?" Wally asked.

"I dunno and I don't care. We gotta get to Rustboro NOW." Sapphire commands.

But Mudkip jumps off my shoulder and runs off towards what seems to be sand.

Wait- that's a beach! I stare in awe at the ocean tides moving calmly. Mudkip is splashing in the water happily as the morning sun is coming up behind us.

I've never seen the sea before, so I was surprised. It's nothing like they show in the movies or describe in books. It's something new entirely. There's a line of boulders piled up with the waves crashin' in on them. Wingulls are resting on the water or flying up in the cloudless, bright sky. The waves of the ocean are calming to my ears, and for a minute, I can shut out whatever's happening in the world, and I can smell the ocean scent passing around us.

Of course, Sapphire has to ruin the moment.

"Best keep Sirius in his Pokeball. I just used a Potion on Torchic and we're ready to go," Sapphire says.

"Uh… guys?" Wally starts.

"C'mon Sapphire! Always ruining stuff!" I start.

"Guys," Wally says.

"Well we gotta move or else we get eaten out here," Sapphire argues.

"Guys!"

"It's the little things that matter, y'know!" I retort.

"GUYS! LOOK!" Wally points towards the exit we took out of Petalburg.

There's a whole stampede of zombies. I'm not kidding, there's literally a few hundred zombies slowly but surely coming our ways.

"LET'S MOVE!" I yell.

"Duh!" Sapphire retorts one last time before we run across the beach, Mudkip jumping on my shoulder.

I only look back a couple times to see some zombies are going down to the beach while others are staggering on the hill above us. Then we hear gunshots. Gunshots.

"Everyone in the water!" Sapphire commands.

"W-why? Wally stammers.

"If someone's shootin' up there, they'll mistake us for zombies and pump our guts fulla lead!" Sapphire explains. And with that, Wally splashes into the water and goes under.

"Well? What're you waiting for?" Sapphire yells.

"I can't swim!" I say, looking at the water.

"Oh for the love of- Wait! See that shack?" Sapphire points to a worn out shack on the hill in front of us. "Hide in there! We'll all meet somewhere in the forest!"

And she dives in the water. Mudkip runs on the ground with me as we leap into the shack.

I find a switch on the wall next to the door and fumble with it. The lights come on, revealing an ordinary place, with a few chairs neatly placed next to the table, a fireplace in the corner and a kitchen with food strewn everywhere.

I lock the door and Mudkip jumps on the table, panting.

"I think were safe for now, Mudkip," I say, sitting down in a chair.

Not two minutes later, someone tried the doorknob, then they started kicking it.

Oh my Arceus. I grab Mudkip and dive behind the kitchen counter right before the just

"No one in here, Ted," a deep voice emerges.

"Dunno 'til you look for sure, Larry," a voice that I think is Ted says.

"What were Officer Jenny's orders?" Larry asked after looking under the table.

"You forgot. You always forget! She said kill anything and anyone. Says even the living might be infected and can spread it. They just haven't turned into them zombies yet," Ted explains, looking through some pots lined up on the walls.

I motion to Mudkip with my fingers. On the count of three. Mudkip nods. _Three… _they come near the fireplace, a few feet away. _Two…_ they come near the kitchen cabinet and are just peering over the edge-

"ONE!" I yell. Mudkip starts Water Gunning the two as they drop their weapons.

I grab Mudkip by his tail and sprint out into the sea air.

Where to? I look around and there's a trail leading from the cliff all the way through a dark forest.

I'd have to take my chances, the two guys were recovering pretty quickly.

Mudkip ran close to my feet as we stumbled across the mud, trying to stay out of sight. Somehow, we made it to the entrance of the forest, the roots tripping us as we sprinted past trees and bushes.

"Sapphire! Wally!" I called out, hoping they're somewhere around here.

No response. They said they'd meet me at the forest- did something happen?

The ocean was to the west of the forest, so I carefully watched my step as I made my way over there.

The sun was shining in all crazy beams of light through the branches, making it hard to see anything. I somehow reached a cliff overlooking the ocean and nearly fell in. Mudkip and I sat on the edge and waited. Not a single noise besides Pokemon cries deep in the forest.

"Mudkip, do you think you'd be able to find them?" I asked, worried that I've been waiting for over 10 minutes.

Mudkip didn't hesitate, he jumped in the water and swam deeper, out of sight.

For 5 minutes, I waited. This is bad. They're clearly in trouble, but I can't swim.

I looked around in panic, thinking Sapphire and Wally drowned and Mudkip's freaking out. Sirius is in critical health, so I'll have to do this myself.

I took off Sapphire backpack and rummaged through it, looking for something to cut with- a knife! Looked pretty sharp. I started making a raft by cutting down trees, but I failed to notice the shabby, small boat hanging from the face of the cliff.

I was nervous. One wrong move, and I'd drown to death.

I carefully lowered the boat to the water and stepped in it, shocked at how much it rocked back and forth.

"I'm coming, guys!" I called out to no one.

I pulled the oars attached to the sides of the boat and it slowly made its way across the waves. The sea water splashed in my face constantly, so it made it hard to see ahead.

"Mudkip! Are you there? Sapphire, Wally!" I called out to beneath the waves.

Then I saw a movement ahead of me. There was ocean everywhere now, the sun shining brightly behind me, the sky cloudless. And then there was the matter of the twenty feet tall pirate ship looming up in front of me.

I saw people in some sort of uniforms at the edge of the ship, staring at me with eyes like Ekans. They were coming towards me so fast, I was sure my small boat would be crushed, but they dropped an anchor next to me.

"HEY! WHO ARE YOU?" I call up.

Out of nowhere, a net covers me and I'm being lifted into the air.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" I call, clawing at the net. There's another guy dressed as a pirate holding the net with one hand.

"Another landlubber, here!" The guy says in a hoarse laugh.

I look behind him and see other pirates, snarling at me as they get the anchor back on board.

Sitting in the corner near the mast were Sapphire and Mudkip, tied up.

Suddenly, Sirius burst out of my Pokeball out of the net! He growled at the pirates, but was visibly weak. He lunged at the guy holding my net, but the pirate kicked him in the face and he flew across the ship, fainting near Sapphire.

"HEY! NO ONE DOES THAT TO MY POKEMON!" I say, throwing wild fists at the pirate.

"Name's Archie, not No one!" He says with a laugh. "Tie him up, there's still that green haired kid to get."

"Alright, what do we do with these kids and Pokemon then?" Says another pirate, pointing at us.

"We execute them!" Says Archie, walking away, dropping me on the floor.

"Hey Sapphire, what does 'execute' mean?" I ask when they tie me up to the mast as well. Sirius is forced into his Pokeball by the pirates.

She looks up with a tired expression. "It means they're gonna kill us."


	7. Sailin' and Stuff

It wasn't long till the laughing pirates hoisted us three up as the ship as the day fell off the sky, replaced by a endless stretch of black sky. The ship was still cruising through the west Hoenn seas, headed north. A crescent moon hung sadly, with no clouds to latch on to.

The pirates carried us to a shabby room deep in the decks of the ship, threw us in there, and they laughed as they went off to another room.

The room looked like it saw better days. Paint peeled off on all 4 brown walls as a _CREAK _from the ship's voyage could be heard every few seconds.

I was starting to get claustrophobic. I'd been tied up with the other two for about 4 hours now, and my blood was boiling.

"Hey! Do you have any idea getting outta here?" I yell, gnashing at the ropes with my teeth.

"No! And we probably only have 1 or 2 hours before we have to walk the plank!" Sapphire says, squirming in the tight ropes.

"Walking the plank?" I ask, wondering what in the Distortion World that meant.

"Duh! It's when pirates send you overboard, usually tied up!"

"Great, now what? Mudkip, got any ideas?"

Mudkip strained to heave breaths as the ropes tied tightly around his stomach.

"Wait a sec, I GOT IT!" Sapphire yelled in triumph, and reached down towards her bag. "If I could just-"

She pulled out a Pokeball, clicked the button, and dropped it to the floor.

"Torchic!" I exclaimed.

"Torchic, we need you to burn these ropes!" Sapphire ordered.

Torchic let out small flashes of flames close to the rope, making it vulnerable. Sapphire bit the rope and she broke free. Now with Sapphire gone, the rope was loosened up more, and I got Mudkip and myself out.

"Tah-dah!" I say, throwing arms out to an invisible crowd. "The famous Loudini!"

"Loudini?" Sapphire asked in a confusing tone.

"Yeah, y'know, the famous Johto magician.

"Never heard of him."

"Whatever. How do we get outta here?" I ask, trying the doorknob. There're no windows, and Mudkip walked around the inside perimeter, trying to find something.

Then the weirdest thing happened. Mudkip's fin started glowing! I was wondering what was going on when Dexter started beeping up a storm again. Meh, I'm used to it now.

**The fin on MUDKIP's head acts as a highly sensitive radar. Using this fin to sense movements of water and air, this POKEMON can determine what is taking place around it without using its eyes.**

"That's a pretty handy ability, Mudkip!" I compliment, but Mudkip is too busy sensing something.

His fin glows faintly as he shuts his eyes close and holds his ground from the swaying of the ship. No sound is heard until Mudkip opens his eyes in frenzy. Mudkip's fin stops glowing as he jumps about the ship, yelling out his Pokemon cry.

"What is it, Mudkip?" Sapphire asks, fumbling while getting Torchic in his Pokeball.

Mudkip motions towards the ground with his feet, hopping around, a purple and golden blur.

"I don't get it. What-" I start, but was thrown off my feet.

The boat was now rocking on one side of the wall, and I could hear the waves crashing on the hull of the ship. Sapphire had her feet planted on the ground, scooping up Mudkip in her arms.

"The ship's capsizing! You don't know how to swim, right? We have to get to the mast and get a rowing boat outta there!" Sapphire yelled over the roar. A gush of water now broke a hole in the room, filling the room with water swiftly.

Mudkip leaped out of Sapphire's arms and Tackled the door by throwing his whole body against it, to no avail. I started to hear some pirates yelling and hollering, evidently stumbling up to deck.

"We're all gonna have to Tackle it!" I yelled, and the three of us gathered on the other side of the room with water running and swallowing up our ankles. "ON THREE! ONE… TWO… THREE!"

We all charge towards the door, barreling out into the hallway as the door hinges break off.

"Oof! Mudkip! Sapphire! The way to the deck is through here-" I start, pointing towards a staircase, dim lights lighting up a few steps., but failed to notice water rushing down the steps, flooding water to our knees. "What do we do NOW?"

Sapphre mulled this over for a second before heading to the room we were detained in, her feet sloshing the water everywhere.

"Follow my lead! And don't panic!" Sapphire warned, before climbing through the hole, swallowed up by the ocean.

"WHAT! I CAN'T SWIM!" I yelled, then noticed the water was to my waist. It was now or never. I staggered over to the hole, Mudkip perched on my shoulder, and before I knew it, I was covered by dark, murky water in all directions.

The first thing you gotta learn about the ocean is that it's certainly not forgiving. I tried to put oxygen in my mouth- just a little, but all that rushed in was water, knocking me backwards. I thought I was done for until an arm, quick as sound, grabbed by own and started pulling me to the surface slowly.

I probably looked like a Magikarp gasping for air as I emerged from the ocean depths, Sapphire holding my arm in one hand, Mukdip on the other. The ships, around 10 feet away, was almost completely capsized now, with one end in the other, and the bird's nest the only safety for the pirates. The night sky made it difficult to see anything, so all I could see was Mudkip's shiny purpleness and goldness.

"Listen! The pirates are all in the bird's nest, and the rowboats are on deck- underwater. I need to pull a rowboat to surface, and the only place you can't sink is holding on to the mainmast, where those pirate guys are. Okay? Then bye!" She said, and before I could get a word out she dove underwater. I grabbed onto the mainmast and hung on to it for dear life.

"HEY! IT'S THE KID, ARCHIE!" One of the pirates yelled.

Oh no.

Archie looked down from the crow's nest and saw me, laughed, and sent out a Pokeball into the air. A Pokemon emerged from it, but dove into the ocean.

"Get ready to get eaten alive, kid!" Archie yelled, snarling.

I brought by legs up to hold onto the mast as well, but it was too slippery.

"Hang on, Mudkip!" I ordered, but all I saw was a blur of purple as he dived after the Pokemon.

Everything was quiet after that, even the pirates peered over the nest quietly.

"MUDKIP! GET BACK HERE-" I screamed, but all I saw was a crimson red on the surface of the water. I began to feel dizzy as a rowboat appeared on the surface, but no Sapphire, and no Mudkip.

Archie's Pokemon emerged from the currents and made a wild lunge at me, missing by an inch. It looked like some sort of shark, but leave it up to Dexter to assist me, his voice barely audible over the crashes of the Pokemon.

**SHARPEDO, THE BRUTAL POKEMON**

**Nicknamed the "bully of the sea," SAHRPEDO is widely feared. Its cruel fangs grow back immediately if they snap off. Just one of these Pokemon can thoroughly tear apart a supertanker. **

My choices were to either jump on the boat and row away, or go search for Sapphire and Mudkip. I held Sirius' Pokeball and threw it onto the boat. If I didn't survive, he surely will.

I took a deep breath before lowering myself into the water, holding onto the mast with one arm while perring through the dark water.

I could see a purple rushing at me, and Mudkip appeared out of the waves, jumping onto the mast. He looked pretty tired, but otherwise unharmed. Then that blood must belong to- I quickly put my face in the water again.

"Sapphire!" I tried to call out, but all that came out underwater was. "SCHWIRN!"

Then I saw her, her red clothing caught by a sail, blood pouring out of an arm wound.

I need to get to her somehow, but how? Then I saw a movement behind me and something green dived in. GREEN. It can't be-

"Wally!" I yell in glee, throwing my arms out into the air.

"HEY ARCHIE, DAT'S DA GREEN KID WHO WE BEEN LOOKIN' FOR!" One of the pirates yelled.

I leaped all the way from the mast to the rowboat, Mudkip on my shoulder, and picked up Sirius. Wally appeared, gasping for air, carrying an unconscious Sapphire in one arm. He dragged himself to the boat and we all lay there, breathing for a minute.

Archie was now shouting curses at us.

"THIS AIN'T THE LAST TIME YOU'VE SEEN TEAM AQUA!" He screamed out to the starless night sky.

Team Aqua, the team who supposedly started the whole zombie thing. But what could we do? We were weak, and he had Sharpedo and who knows what along with all his henchmen.

"WE'LL BE BACK, ARCHIE! AND YOU'LL BE SORRY!" I yell back, but more concentrating on rowing the boat. There were two sets of rows, but only I rowed because Wally was patching up Sapphire's arm with some med supplies in his backpack. The ship got out of sight pretty quickly, and again, there was ocean on all sides of us.

"How'd you know where we were?" I asked, with Wally helping to row.

"When I first dive in the ocean off of the beach, Sapphire and I went separate ways accidentally, and I ended up going into Petalburg Woods."

"So did I. I was at the part of the woods overlooking the ocean, trying to find you guys. I ended up finding a small boat and sailed until Archie found me and threw me on board. Sapphire and I were tied up, and they said they were looking for you for some reason."

Wally snorted. "I went to the east side of the woods, trying to look for you. I searched there until nightfall, then built a raft and went out to sea, hoping you two would be out there somewhere, and well, you know the rest.

Mudkip was snoozing next to Sapphire, the waves were calm, and the first streaks of dawn made their way across the sky.

Checking the map, I found the nearest port was in Rustboro city, looks like we skipped the woods completely and were now headed for the city. We'd arrive there in half an hour, if we're lucky.

"Ruby, you know about the legend of the environment trio?" Wally asked.

"The wah?" I asked, not amused.

"Everybody who lives in Hoenn knows about it, and most believe it. A long time ago, there were two Pokemon. Groudon, who controlled the lands and continents, and Kyogre, who controlled the ocean and water. The two Pokemon HATED each other, because they both wanted their element to cover the whole world. They battled each other, with weather conditions in Hoenn going crazy. One second, there'd be 100 degrees of sunlight, and then the next second, there'd be water pouring everywhere. A Pokemon called Rayquaza, the one who protects the ozone layer, was created to stop the battle between them. Even today, Groudon and Kyogre live beneath the waves, recovering from their wounds." Wally explains the story.

"That's a load of baloney, Wally," I say, peering at the horizon and seeing the port of Rustboro somewhere off in the distance.

"The first thing we got to do is rest up at the Pokemon center," Wally says, yawning.

"Gotta."

"What?"

"You said 'got to.' You gotta say 'gotta.'"

"Says who?"

"Dunno, people from Johto, Hoenn, and Kalos talk in weird ways, apparently."

"I'm from Kanto, so I guess I'm in the clear?"

"Guess so."

Mudkip was wide awake now, and I started feeding him some Pokemon food I kept in my backpack.

"Wally, we gotta get stronger if we're thinkin' about defeating the two teams. Did you see Team Aqua back there? We barely made it out alive." I say.

"I know. One way you can test your strength is tobattle these trainers known as Gym Leaders. If you beat all of them, you know you're the very best in Pokemon battling," Wally explained.

"There were two gym leaders in the cities I lived in. Morty of Ecruteak City, and Whitney of Goldenrod City." I said.

"Back in Pewter City, we had a gym leader called Brock. He was kind of weird, but cool nonetheless."

The port was close now, so I stood up with Mudkip on my shoulder and jumped on land. Wally followed suit, carrying Sapphire.

"You gotta get to the Pokemon center and have them heal our Pokemon and Sapphire." I say. "I'm gonna try to find the gym leader of this city, so meet me at that fountain right there after you heal up," I point to a water fountain, spraying water neatly across the stone flooring.

Wally hurried off with Mudkip at his feet as I started to ponder who the gym leader would be.

"Excuse me, do you-" I start to ask someone, then I realized who it was. "YOU!"

"Oh hi! You're that kid who helped me find my sister Stephanie! My name's Mark." Mark says, with a little sister who pops up behind him, waving.

"Hey! Nice meetin' you, but I gotta get going to the gym," I say.

Mark bites his lip. "You can only go there today, cause tomorrow they're gonna bar up this whole city from the zombies. Thankfully the woods slow down the zombies, but there's this whole crowd of 'em catchin' up to the town. You can get to the gym by following me."

He starts walking towards a dusty path strewn with streetlights. People are walking everywhere, busy with the zombie problem and paying me no attention. I walk on the sidewalk, my feet thudding loudly as I haven't gotten any sleep since… more than 22 hours ago. But I have to challenge the gym to get stronger. I was entrusted with the task to save Hoenn, and I'll stop at nothing-

Mark stops and peers inside the gym, all the lights are off. "Huh. I think it's already closed."

"It can't be already!" I say, pushing him to the side and peering in. There's a gym arena, rocks covering everywhere but the match field, and lights aimed at the field are turned off as well. I jog to the front door and try it. Unlocked.

"It's open," I say, pulling the door open. The lobby looks anything BUT normal. Rocks are placed everywhere, even on the ceiling (are they like, super glued to the ceiling?) and lots of Pokemon like Machop or Geodude are training on the rocks. There's a lady at the reception counter that I walk up to, Stephanie and Mark at my heels.

"Hello? I'd like a gym match with the gym leader here, please," I say.

Reception Lady looks up. "Sure. Roxanne is behind the door. Knock yerself out."

That was easy.

I push open the door leading to the arena.

"Roxanne? I challenge you to a gym battle!" I yell out, my voice echoing across the room.

"Very well, young trainer. This will be a 2 on 2 Pokemon battle. Are you ready?" Roxanne asks, appearing from an elevator at the far side of the room.

"You bet I am!" I say, jumping to the challenger's side. "Go, Mudkip-"

I slap my forehead. Both of my Pokemon are healin' up.

"You can come back when you retrieve your Pokemon," Roxanne says, unamused. "But by then, I will be long gone."

"Aww, Ruby, you can battle with my Pokemon!" Mark says, handing me two Pokeballs.

"In that case, I will send out my Geodude," Roxanne says, a Geodude emerging from her Pokeball.

It was worth a shot. "Go, Pokeball!"

Out bursts a Wingull. I know what it is, but Dexter starts a frenzy again.

**WINGULL, THE SEAGULL POKEMON,**

**WINGULL has the habit of carrying prey and valuable in its beak and hiding them in all sorts of locations. This POKEMON rides the winds and flies as if it were skating across the sky.**

I was ready, but I felt like I couldn't battle right with Pokemon that aren't mine. How could I? I don't understand them, and they don't understand me.

Roxanne made the first move, of course.

"Geodude, Rock Throw!"


End file.
